ABC ending its Live Well network

Robert ChannickTribune staff reporter

ABC is discontinuing its Live Well digital network, a national lifestyle channel with Chicago roots.

Live Well Network features 24/7 home, fashion, food and health shows, with offerings such as “Live Big with Ali Vincent,” and “My Family Recipe Rocks,” hosted by former 'N Sync member Joey Fatone. It airs on the digital subchannels of all 8 ABC owned and operated TV stations, including WLS-TV in Chicago, and reaches 64 percent of U.S. households, according to ABC.

The network will end its run by mid-January 2015, according to an email sent to affiliates Monday by Rebecca Campbell, president of the ABC owned stations, and Peggy Allen, vice president of Live Well Network. There was no word as to replacement programming for the 70 or so stations that carry the network.

“Despite Live Well's tremendous accomplishments in distribution and original programming, we made a strategic decision that our priority must be local content, and we want to maximize our investment in our core local news brands in the digital space,” Campbell and Allen said.

Launched in 2009, Live Well was developed by Emily Barr, the former president and general manager of WLS-Ch.7, to stake out programming ground for the new digital subchannels created by the conversion of television stations from analog to digital broadcasting. In addition to over the air signals, many diginets are picked up by cable systems, helping them reach mainstream audiences.

Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting’s Me-TV, a vintage TV network featuring everything from “The Brady Bunch” to “Gilligan’s Island,” is the largest diginet in the U.S. Me-TV has some 150 broadcast affiliates and outranks many cable networks in viewership in markets across the U.S., according to recent Nielsen audience data.

Other major diginet players include This-TV, a movie network operated by Tribune Broadcasting and MGM; Tribune Broadcasting’s Antenna TV; and Atlanta-based Bounce TV, which features African American-focused programming.

Chicago-based Tribune Co. is planning to spin off its newspaper holdings, including the Chicago Tribune, by mid-year.